A year to the day since taking over as New Zealand cricket captain, Brendon McCullum is still seeking his first tick in the win column with rain scuppering their hopes in the first Test against the West Indies.
New Zealand were left 33 runs shy of breaking the duck for the 32-year-old after the weather, Darren Bravo and some spilled catches allowed the tourists to get off the hook after being forced to follow on 396 runs behind.
It means McCullum has yet to taste victory in his 10 Tests at the helm and the Black Caps have twice come up short on the final day when pushing for victory.
“I thought we were excellent through the majority of that Test match and played some really good cricket especially after losing the toss on a pretty green wicket.
“To get 600 and set the game up like we did gave ourselves a real opportunity and it’s disappointing it started raining,” he said.
New Zealand, on the back of Ross Taylor’s unbeaten 217 and McCullum’s 113, amassed 9(dec)-609 and then dismissed the tourists for 213 before Bravo’s double century allowed the visitors to set a testing 112-run target.
The home side stumbled to 4-44 at one stage and were still well short after 30 overs when the rain came.
“A couple of us played some shots that were too far on the aggressive side for what was needed at that time.
“I still think that if it hadn’t rained, we would have got the result we wanted,” said McCullum who fell to an ill-judged slog-sweep in the chase.
His first-innings century came after criticism of his recent Test performances and after he revealed that an ongoing back injury had forced him to consider his future in the game.
“It was relief. I don’t think I’ve played under that much media or public scrutiny throughout my career.”
The lack of Test success was starting to weigh on his mind but he felt they were denied victory by the weather.
“You’re obviously judged by your results. It frustrates you, but we did everything we could to win this Test match and I believe we’d have won if it hadn’t rained.
“I firmly believe we are performing pretty well in Test cricket and, sooner or later, the wins will come.”
